the underachievers are trying harder

so here's a sad little story to share with you all. i couldn't find anyone who willingly wanted to see some live music with me. it took a coin toss to get someone to see camera obscura at the troubadour last night. with the loser of the coin flip accompanying me. don't all volunteer at once boys. sheesh. yeah, must be my charm.

glyphic said he'd go, but he looked so bothered and disinterested that i'm actually very pleased that the coin chose against him. it allowed me the opportunity to really talk to the lucky loser. something that might not have happened otherwise. leave it to the stars to find the better fortune.

we got there early. really early. with doors usually opening at 8, i figured the opening band would go on around 8:30 and play for 45 minutes, leaving camera obscura to take the stage around 9:30. i was wrong. opening band started at 9. so CO wouldn't go on until 10. and because lucky loser and i got there at around door time, we had nearly an hour to kill before hearing anything. so we talked some. and we agree - there is no hope for the future and only a select few are ever fortunate enough to love what they do for a living.

9 o'clock. on go the opening band. i forget their name. but they're really forgettable. they sucked. hard. lucky loser and i joked that they were tuning for the entirety of their set. that or they weren't sure what was going on. they would start a song, gaze off glassy-eyed and get startled back to life realizing they had instruments in their hands. it was really quite bizarre. at one point various members of the band switched roles completely with other members of the band resulting in some cacophonous mess. they played musical instruments like... like musical chairs. we thought it was a neat experiment, but probably would have been better suited to a band that actually sounded good to begin with. the band played songs that were the beginnings or the under layers of what could have been a better song. they just didn't know how to get there. it was horrible. but they did have a fan. some dude way up front near the stage was dancing with gusto. if he had only turned around to see that no one else was doing it he may have saved himself from scrutiny and embarrassment.

during the break between bands i ran into this girl who used to work at the same company as me. we were in different departments and really didn't have much reason to ever talk. but we did kind of have a friend in common. she left before i could get to know her. but she was the kind of person i would have liked to make friends with. she has good taste in music, she's flip, and she didn't kiss ass. you could tell she was good people. we caught up a bit and equally expressed our disappointment that we didn't become friends at work. but we did exchange info, and she said she'd go to shows with me if i couldn't find anyone else to go with. hooray! no more coin tosses!

camera obscura came on while i was buying a shirt. they sounded good. like a simpler belle and sebastian. and the scottish accents are way cool even if you can't really understand what they're saying. they made a little joke about the night feeling a bit like a prom. kinda sappy and sweet. a honey drippin' night of good times. i wish they had played a few more songs. it's fun to sing along to, even if the sound does seem a little repetitive.

it could have been an evening of social agony, but the underachievers were trying harder. and the footloose and fancy free who generally don't do crowds shone like new pins before they were left to go home.